Chairman of leasehold RMC accused of stealing £1 million

Copsey charged for £1 million leasehold fraud, as reported on Daily Mail website

The world of leasehold is engulfed in yet another scandal as a chairman of a residents’ management company has been charged with stealing more than £1 million.

Brian Copsey, 59, finance chairman of Bryanston Court Management, a block of luxury flats in London’s Marble Arch, has been charged with plundering the cash between March 2010 and October last year.

If the accusation is proved true, the fraud will dwarf the £120,000 theft from leaseholders’ accounts by Simon van Houten, the Rendall and Rittner executive who was jailed for 30 months at the Old Bailey last year.

Shareholders of Bryanston Court Management are the leaseholders in the block, where a two bedroom flat would cost around £1 million.

The company had assets in its contingency and service charge accounts of £1.7 million in 2011.

Copsey is accused of fraud by abuse of position, and attempting to launder the stolen cash between different accounts.

‘The allegation in this case is that the defendant was acting in a fiduciary capacity as director of a management company,” said prosecutor Rajan Barot at Westminster magistrates court.

“In that role he was finance chairman. Over a period of two and a half years he has transferred more than £1m out of residents’ accounts for the company and used it for his own purposes.’

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